Dear Friend, Water is life. I’ve heard this saying in so many places where I’ve traveled, expressed in a multitude of languages. Its truth is self-evident to millions of people assisted by Catholic Relief Services. That’s why you’ll see it painted on the sides of countless wells, tanks and cisterns that bring clean, life-giving water [...]
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Dear Friend, This December 26, as we bask in the warm afterglow of family Christmas celebrations, we will pause to remember the fifth anniversary of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, one of the most horrific natural disasters in memory. The tidal wave claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people and left millions homeless, without [...]
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Dear Friend, Just a week after we gather with our families to celebrate Thanksgiving, we pause to commemorate a more somber occasion: World AIDS Day. This observance each December 1 is a time to take note of the toll this awful pandemic exacts: the lives taken, the futures dimmed, the families broken apart. But to [...]
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Dear Friend, As the summer was drawing to a close, we heard of the death of Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution, which lifted millions of people, mostly in Asia, out of hunger through the production of high-yield varieties of wheat. Despite Dr. Borlaug’s achievements, we commemorate this year’s World Food Day on [...]
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Dear Friend, In 1943, as war raged across Europe, a Polish-American priest from Chicago was dispatched on an urgent mission of mercy. Thousands upon thousands of bedraggled Polish refugees fleeing Soviet forced-labor camps in Siberia were streaming into Iran, seeking safe haven. The refugees, most of them women and children, along with some elderly men, [...]
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Dear Friend, More than two decades ago, several theologians wrote a book titled Catholic Social Teaching: Our Best Kept Secret. At the time, it was true. Hopefully, with the publication of Pope Benedict’s encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), more people will become aware of the treasure that is Catholic social teaching.
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In Moldova, the poorest country in Europe, CRS is working to provide options to vulnerable women at risk of being trafficked.
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Dear Friend, This time of year, I have the pleasure of engaging in one of the favorite parts of my job: offering a few words of wisdom to graduating college students. In years past, I’ve spoken at commencements across the country, from the University of San Diego on the West Coast, to Siena College and [...]
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Dear Friend, The highly skilled professionals who work at international humanitarian organizations have developed our own “insider” language to describe the work we do. For example, many humanitarians refer to the people we serve as “stakeholders.” Others call them “beneficiaries.” I prefer to use another term: families.
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Dear Friend, A few years ago, we were looking for ways to help farmers in Tanzania and our staff come up with a project to combine microfinance savings groups with agricultural promotion. With private donations from the Ryan Memorial Foundation, they started the Chickpea Market Promotion project. It had a modest goal of forming 10 [...]
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